My Rating: 3/5 (***)

Synopsis: “When Eleanor Brice unexpectedly wins the heart of Gregory Desmarais, Crown Prince of Cartheigh, she’s sure she’s found her happily-ever-after. Unfortunately, Prince Charming has a loose grip on his temper, a looser grip on his marriage vows, and a tight grip on the bottle.

Eight years of mistreatment, isolation and clandestine book learning hardly prepare Eleanor for life at Eclatant Palace, where women are seen, not heard. According to Eleanor’s eavesdropping parrot, no one at court appreciates her unladylike tendency to voice her opinion. To make matter worse, her royal fiancee spends his last night of bachelorhood on a drunken whoring spree. Before the ink dries on her marriage proclamation Eleanor realizes that she loves her husband’s best friend, former soldier Dorian Finley.

Eleanor can’t resist Dorian’s honesty, or his unusual admiration for her intelligence, and soon both are caught in a dangerous obsession. She drowns her confusion in charitable endeavors, but the people’s love can’t protect her from her feelings. When a magical crime endangers the bond between unicorns, dragons, and the royal family, a falsely accused Eleanor must clear her own name to save her life. The road toward vindication will force a choice between hard-won security and an impossible love.

The Cracked Slipper is a book club friendly fairytale retelling in the vein of Gregory Maguire, with a dash of romance. Set in a pseudo-renaissance, corset-and-petticoats enchanted kingdom, The Cracked Slipper brings a magical twist to women’s fiction.”

The Cracked Slipper is the story of Cinderella after “happily ever after” has worn off, and real life has set in.

Despite being based on Cinderella, this book breaks away from the fairy tale, and becomes its own story. Starting with the ending of the original story, Cracked Slipper tells the tale of Eleanor realizing that “love at first sight” probably isn’t a good basis for a stable relationship.

This book is 80% Eleanor falling out of love with Prince Charming or attending parties, and only 20% action. The main conflict of the story didn’t happen until the last few chapters. Well, I suppose you could argue that the whole Dorian thing was the main conflict of the story, but even that doesn’t get wrapped up until nearly the end of the book. I was expecting the action to start somewhere around the middle of the story – three fourths of the way through the book, I was starting to worry that I’d never get to it. It felt a bit late to be introducing the conflict, and the entire thing was wrapped up quickly as well. To be honest, it almost felt like the action was just tacked on at the last minute to make the book appeal to a wider audience. I did enjoy the resolution; it just felt like there should have been more of a build-up than, “Oh no! The horn that we haven’t mentioned in 10 chapters is suddenly missing!”

I liked how the world was set up. All of the animals talk, all of the nobles have pet birds to assist them (suddenly singing birds doing chores doesn’t sound so far-fetched), and unicorns help the kingdom mine a stone found exclusively in places where dragons live. Instead of fairy godmothers, magic is worked by wizards and witches. All the changes take Cracked Slipper from being a rewritten fairy tale to being a full-fledged fantasy story.

There were a few grammatical errors, but none so distracting that it interrupted the story.